Rare French Wine, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, At Sotheby’s Wine Auction

ADEDOYIN AMOLE

There will be a rare find of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti At Sotheby’s Wine Auction on October 13 in London. There will be 100 lots at the auction.

These Domaine de la Romanée-Conti bottles are a remarkable offering from the single personal cellar of Robert Drouhin, the patriarch of family-run Maison Joseph Drouhin, a French wine producer based in Burgundy that was founded in 1880. The collection spans 1937 through 1964. Robert Drouhin personal cellar that will be bided for holds 100 lots as well as a gripping tale of World War II Nazi intrigue

Acquired in part with Robert’s father, Maurice, the collection reflects the unprecedented access Maison Joseph Drouhin had as exclusive distributor of DRC wines in France and Belgium from the late 1920s to the early 1960s. Richebourg, La Tâche, even Romanée Conti itself, a magnum of 1937, two bottles of 1961, they will all be on the block. And having lived in the one cellar since leaving the producer, their provenance is close to unprecedented as well.

As earlier mentioned, the vintages on offer span four decades, they span World War II. This makes the collection rich in history. The story surrounding the collection has it that when Maurice Drouhin became aware that the great wines in his cellar were a target of the Germans, he built a wall inside his cellars to conceal them. Robert, just 8 years old, spread cobwebs and dirt to disguise the new chamber. Suspected of engaging in anti-German activity, Maurice was imprisoned for a few months. But when the Germans came for him again, he escaped into the cellars, which ran through a labyrinth of ancient paths and vaults under the city to the Hospices de Beaune, where he served as vice president. He remained hidden under the hospital, cared for by the nuns, until the city was liberated in 1944.